Vehicles I Remember: 1957 Chevrolet

I felt proud of the 1957 two-door Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtop Coupe that my parents bought when the car was only a year or two old with very few miles on it. The car sported fins and futuristic hood ornaments reminiscent of rockets. As a kid, I enjoyed waxing the car, but, invariably, I pinched a finger when making rapid passes of the polishing cloth under those hood rockets. I just couldn’t learn to avoid cramming my finger back too far! Ouch!

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe in a Pine Village Winter

The roof was white; the body was pink, not the coral color that many people today insist was the only “pinkish” color in the 1957 Chevrolet lineup. The abundance of chrome was nothing short of magnificent! What a splendid show the automobile made at the drive-in movies and drive-in restaurants!

Chevrolet Bel Air with Original Pink Paint, Not Coral

It happens that my parents’ ownership of the ’57 Chevrolet coincided with one of the happiest times of my childhood. My family drove to Lafayette, Indiana, more than once a week for various activities, such as shopping at Graves Bakery, the Ayres branch in Market Square, and the new Smitty’s Supermarket. The Chevrolet faithfully took my brother and me to piano lessons. My family attended concerts and plays, and we visited Battleground and Fort Ouiatenon. What fun we had!

During the summers, the Chevy made frequent trips to Williamsport for the county fair. Every Christmas, the car took us to the Purdue University Christmas Show, which was wonderful each and every year! The Chevrolet was a major contributor to our life. In many key respects, we had a life because of the Chevy!

Unfortunately, I am prone to motion sickness. I always begged my parents to permit me to sit in the front seat, where I was less likely to be plagued by the dizziness and resultant nausea. Of course, my father and mother wanted to sit next to each other in front, and they were dismayed to relinquish the front passenger seat to me again and again. I often had to be tough and try to survive a trip seated in back. One time, I told my parents that I was feeling ill. We were returning from Lafayette and were nearly home. My mother urged me to keep calm until we pulled into our driveway. As my father turned off the highway, I vomited onto the floor in back. I couldn’t have waited another minute. My mother volunteered to clean the car. As the Chevy was a two-door model, she had a difficult time reaching around the front seat to shampoo the carpet in the floor well of the back seat. For a long time, the car had an odor that was partly the result of bacteria that grew in the carpet, no matter how frequently and skillfully my mother mopped the nap. I deeply regretted what had happened, but, to this day, I know that I could have done nothing differently.

Eventually, my parents decided that the ’57 Chevy had enough miles and that they should find another car. My father kept the Chevrolet; in fact, he still had it in his garage in the 1970s. It was parked beside the Hudson and the Packard. My father called me at Indiana University and said that he would like to sell either the Packard or the Chevrolet. Naively, I thought the Packard would be worth more down the road. With only mild hesitation, I advised my father to sell the Chevy, which he promptly did. What a mistake! That Chevy would soon have been worth far, far more than the Packard, the value of which steadily declined. Oh, well! Lesson learned!